MS veterans, how did you MS BEFORE the internet?

For example, how did you get reports or information or even the possibility of shops? How did you return your reports? Were pictures involved ever? How much more difficult was it?

Just curious. Am speaking as one who did genealogy pre-internet and remembers travelling with little children to courthouses, historical societies, and libraries, etc....lol.

It is really hard to remember though....!

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Well I am not entirely pre-internet but when I started I was able to apply to the companies online but then everything was done phone, mail and fax. I would get phone calls, wait for the mail and then fax it all back in. Quickly though everything went online.

As a teen I do remember getting shopped while working at Arby's. And my Edward Jones person told me she shopped for a popular department store for a few years pre internet and got the job from the newspaper classifieds.

Liz

When I first was mystery shopping back in the 1960s work was advertised in magazines. I was a part time employee of a woman who would bid jobs for, as an example, 250 phone shops or 100 home visits or 50 store facings. A ditto or mimeograph master was made of the questionnaires and sometimes the questionnaires were mailed in as a complete group and sometimes they were tallied and the results mailed in.

When I came back to shopping the internet was already pretty much available. Some shops were phone in, some were download and print the survey, complete it and mail it in, a few were already submit the report online.

I found work in my local newspaper before the internet. The very first company, everything was done via mail. The same stores are still shopped today by a company and many in between. The last time I worked for that company I got busy with my kids and forgot to send in the paperwork. I found it filled out etc a month later on the counter. I never heard from them again, wonder why. But, no one every called on the phone from that company.

Later, there were other companies, some very small ones run by shoppers who would get an account and try and figure out the system and it was interesting. Usually a mess. Everyone has to start someplace, but some people just didn't know a whole lot about the industry.

I did work for an employment agency out of Milwaukee for awhile who would call me with weekly shops. They had quite a few shops and I would tell them when I was available. These shops were all done as an employee and not as an IC. Shortly after that I found the internet and the rest is history and a much better way of doing things. I do think that a mistake some people make is to not to ever be able to reached via phone and only via email. There are times when you need to reach people or ask a question.

I remember doing one shop in probably 1996...I got a phone call, then had to send the form in. I don't remember how I found it now, but it must have been something in print.

I remember it didn't pay well, and I wasn't too happy with the whole process. Gave it up in '96 after that shop.

Couple years later, the internet was more in use and I started back up with several companies, and I think most had online forms. But I do remember one company I shopped with regularly in 1998 and I faxed the hand written form in, even though I got my assignments by email.

Still a lot of calls at that time, 98-2001...after 2001 I took some time off from it, and now that I'm back about three years...I very, very rarely speak to anyone on the phone, compared to all the time in '98...

I first saw an advertisement in the classifieds in my local newspaper for a mystery shopper position and the rest is history. We got our assignments in the early 1990's by phone and waited for the paperwork to be mailed to us. You did the shop and then mailed it back to the company. Another company required that you phone in your report and someone there asked the questions and wrote down your answers. Ironically, I remember the pay rate was about the same as it is now.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

I did some mystery shopping in the early 2000's. The worst part was handwriting the reports for EPMS. The reports are the same now, but just think what a PITA handwriting them was!! The reports would then be faxed to them. I think that is the main reason that I quit back then. I took hours and hours to fill out those reports. And the pay was the same as it is now.

They called you on the phone and then you called teh reports in I think sometimes or faxed them in. It seems like a million years ago!

I saw a small ad in a newspaper, and it was required that you submit your handwriting for them to check before they gave you an assignment. This was because you hand wrote the form, and mailed it in, with the receipt from the store you shopped. They always suggested you bring the form with you (hidden of course) and find a place nearby to fill it out immediately before you would forget too much.

I did it in the 90s, Scheels and Panera were the main two companies around here. I had a friend who worked for Iowa Jobservice, and they contracted with them to find shoppers. I would get the info from her and then fax my report back in. I remember Scheels paid $7.50 per shop.

I did some grocery store shops (can't remember the name of the company for the life of me) in the mid-late 90s. I had to call in to report my answers. The reports were all multiple choice answers. Then I had to mail in my receipts, attached to a form I'd receive in the mail.

I remember the days of doing the reports over the telephone. It wasnt that long ago though.

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MS veterans, how did you MS BEFORE the internet?

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